Reinhold Glière's name has always been most associated with
his third symphony Ilya Muromets (1911) and, as a result, record
companies have focused their interest largely on that epic and hugely
enjoyable work.

In recent years, notable efforts by both Marco Polo and, especially,
Chandos (see here) have made some headway in drawing the
attention of the listening public to a few of Glière’s other
orchestral works. His compositions in other fields remain largely
unappreciated.

Now Naxos have come up with an album that very handily collects onto
a single disc all the music that Glière wrote for duos where one
cellist is joined by either another or a violinist or a pianist. The
company’s price band encourages adventurous purchasers to investigate
intriguing though unfamiliar new releases: after all, even if you don't
enjoy the music, you’ve only lost the price of a couple of pints of
beer. Even so, some potential buyers coming new to this repertoire might
worry that works featuring nothing but two stringed instruments - especially
when performed by two identical stringed instruments - will lack
sufficient variety of colour and tone to sustain their listening interest.

Glière, however, is clever. Firstly, he holds our attention by
constantly ringing the changes on style and form so as to ensure that each
piece has an individual identity and to differentiate it from its
neighbours. In the op.39 work for cello and violin, for instance, a rather
questing and unsettling opening andante is nicely contrasted with a
subsequent gavotte that is then followed in turn by a singing cradle song -
and so it goes on. Secondly, he is careful to keep each individual piece
compact, direct and very much to the point: apart from the op.4 Ballade for
cello and piano that because of its greater variety of tonal colour is less
likely to outstay its welcome, none is longer than 3:38 (op.53 no.3) and the
shortest (op.53 no.4) clocks in at just 1:08.

Such a recipe might well suggest that, by stressing variety and brevity,
these works run the risk of sounding disparate or disjointed but, quite
apart from the composer’s own skill, the performers’ expertise
here ensures that that never happens. In the two works for cello and piano,
op.4 and op.51, Martin Rummel is the solo cellist and Till Alexander
Körber the pianist. In op.39, Rummel and Alexander Hülshoff
alternate the tracks - each playing four alongside their violin partner
Friedemann Eichhorn. In the first five pieces of op.53, Hülshoff takes
the first cello part and Rummel the second, before they reverse roles for
the remaining five. All are clearly very accomplished performers and their
clearly well considered collaborative enterprise has been almost entirely
successful: in only a few tracks - such as the aforementioned cradle song
which is, I think, a little too brisk and forthright - did I prefer a 1997
recording of op.39, op.53 and the twelve duets for two violins op.49 by the
South African Chamber Music Society (Discover International DICD 920526).

Another interesting collaborative process is apparent, by the way,
in the CD’s cover artwork. I have occasionally in the past been a
little critical of Naxos covers on the grounds of their sometimes rather
tenuous association with the music they “illustrate”. On this
occasion, however, I noted in the (very) small print that this disc’s
cover reproduces a painting by a clearly talented American artist named Mike
Glier. In an subsequent exchange of e-mails, Mike told me told me that he is
some sort of cousin of the composer, so it’s good both to give the
Naxos design team a pat on the back for their thorough research and to
report that the Glière family’s close involvement in the arts
continues apace into the 21st century.

Listeners coming new to this disc with open, adventurous ears will be struck
-
unsurprisingly to others already familiar with Glière's oeuvre
-
by the composer’s considerable and characteristic gift for crafting
attractive
melodies. Those possessing a sweet musical tooth need only sample the
Tchaikovskian
op.4 Ballade that - always a sucker for a good tune - I found the undoubted
standout
track and well worth the sacrifice of those two of pints of beer.